The Seven Sins of Two Women
by caffinate-me
Summary: 3rd in The Numbers Series. Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Pride , Lust, Greed & Gluttony. Kate Beckett was guilty of all seven, but then again, so was Alexis Castle. A glimpse at the two beautifully imperfect women in Richard Castle's life.
1. Chapter 1

The Seven Sins of Two Women

Disclaimer: They aren't mine.

A/N: Here is the 3rd installment of The Numbers Series. This is based on Heartbreak Hotel, but completely ignores the actual timeline of the show. One of my papers/presentations got pushed back a week. yay! So, in celebration, and because I am the biggest procrastinator in the world, I wrote this. Enjoy and remember reviews are love! :)

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><p><span>Chapter 1<span>

Kate sighed as she hung up the phone. Of course she would end up having to go down to Atlantic City. All she had wanted was a quiet night at home, curled up with a book and a glass of wine, maybe even taking a bath in Rick's swimming pool sized bathtub. Now, she had to go and rescue them from whatever trouble they were getting themselves into. _Men._ She rolled her eyes and slid her phone into her pocket as she pulled her keys out. She wouldn't bother to call Alexis; she had to stop by the loft on her way out of town anyway to pack a bag.

She trudged out to the car; her shoulders slumped in exhaustion. She and Rick had been together for four months now and she was practically living at the loft. She wasn't ready to move in completely yet and he said he wasn't quite ready yet either. They may be in love with each other but they were still their own people with their own lives and own fears. Granted those lives intertwined more often than not, but still, they were taking it one step at a time. She could feel her head droop as she wound the sedan through the crowded streets of the city and shook herself in an attempt to keep herself awake. She made a mental note to make herself a vat of coffee before she left the loft. The strong kind they used during a hard case not that crappy stuff they had for daily use. And by crappy she meant that it wasn't guaranteed to keep her awake for twenty-four hours straight.

Ernie gave her a kind but stressed smile as she passed and she frowned as she turned towards the elevator. Ernie never looked that worried. Her fingers worked at her temples as she leaned against the back wall of the elevator, attempting to work out the headache that had been building all day. Did she really have to go to Atlantic City? Couldn't she just curl up in bed and let the boys fend for themselves. It would be a team building experience for them she rationalized. She sighed.

The elevator dinged at the penthouse and Kate felt the music before she heard it. _What the hell?_ She stepped into the hall to find teenagers streaming into Rick's apartment and she could hear the telltale sounds of a party flowing from the open doorway. Slowly, she made her way forward, reaching for her badge as she pushed the potentially inebriated individuals out of her way. She looked around at girls giggling in circles and boys chugging out of cups. A vase went flying and a crowd cheered. She scanned the group of hormonal youth and caught a flash of red heading for the stairs. Their eyes met across the crowd and she saw Alexis freeze. Kate's forehead creased and her eyes narrowed at the girl. Her eyes traveled from the teen's face down her shoulder and followed her arm to her hand and the hand it was clutching. From there her eyes traveled back up until she found the face of a very confused looking sandy haired boy. She waited, caught somewhere between anger and annoyance as the boy followed Alexis's line of sight and met Kate's narrowed eyes. She saw him gulp and she took that as her cue to spring into action. Alexis dropped the boy's hand like she had been burned and Kate held her badge up over her head.

She really didn't have time for this.

"NYPD, everybody get out now!" She yelled over the music and watched with a satisfied smirk as everyone in the room momentarily froze before dropping the cups and cans in their hands and fleeing towards the door.

Alexis clutched the railing to the stairs as people filed past her, her eyes glued to the ground the whole time. Kate kept her eyes on the sandy haired boy, quickly slipping her hand up to catch his ear as he tried to slip by her. His eyes met hers and he stuttered for a moment before she released him and he bolted for the door.

Kate crossed her arms as the last couple of stragglers made their way out the door and into the cool New York night. Alexis dropped down so she was sitting on the stairs and Kate made her way stand by her.

"I didn't think you'd be here since Dad is out of town. Are you going to tell him?" Alexis's voice was soft as she looked down at her feet, refusing to meet Kate's eye.

Kate sighed and rubbed her forehead once again. "No, but you should. I have to go down to Atlantic City and help them out. This had better be cleaned up by the time we get back tomorrow. We can talk then."

With that Kate turned towards the bedroom and gathered up the things she needed for the night. She glanced towards the stairs as she walked back towards the door to the apartment and saw Alexis sitting in the same position, her head in her hands.

"_Katherine Marie Beckett!"_

_Seventeen year-old Kate froze, caught in the middle of a frenzied make out session, as her father's voice boomed through the apartment. They weren't supposed to be back until Sunday. It was Friday night. Around her red Solo cups fell to the floor as her friends fled for the door. Mike threw her off of his lap as the coward escaped with the rest of the teens and she moved to hide the joint she held in her hand as she wobbled and fell to the floor. This was so not good. _

_Kate closed her eyes as Jim Beckett paced in front of her and Johanna leaned against the far wall. Her father held in his hand a baggy of pot and her newly acquired motorcycle helmet. She could hear him yelling at her but her mind turned in on itself as his words passed through her ears. She knew he was talking to her but the words refused to register in her mind. She was angry. They weren't supposed to be home yet. If they had just stayed out of town they never would have known and he wouldn't be threatening to send her to a nunnery._

_Wait a nunnery? He wasn't serious, was he? Boarding school, really? No, they wouldn't._

_She was just trying to celebrate the fact that she had finally been able to afford her motorcycle. This many people weren't supposed to show up. It was only supposed to be her, Mike, Madison, Maddie's boyfriend Jake and a couple of other friends. When the others had showed up she had already been to high to care but it really wasn't her fault. Kate's eyes moved up to meet her mother's gaze and she gulped. Her mother hadn't said a word, but her eyes said enough. She was pissed. Johanna Beckett rarely got angry, especially towards Kate. Normally all she got was an eye roll and the patented 'I told you so'. Not this time, this time she saw furious disappointment. _

_Kate pulled herself up from the couch as she was dismissed and refused to look at either of them as she shuffled into her room and slammed the door behind her. She had managed to comprehend the words 'house arrest' and 'grounded until the end of time' so she had the feeling she would be there for a while. _

She sighed as she turned the doorknob. "Alexis, I love you. We will talk tomorrow, okay?"

The teen nodded, still not looking up and Kate slid into the hall, pausing as the door closed to lean against the wall. The pounding in her head graduated to a constant sharp pain and she covered her eyes with her hand.

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><p>Kate stared out at the road as the yellow dashes in the middle turned into a blurred streak. She remembered what it was like to be seventeen. Hell, she had put her parents through a lot worse than just a single party when she as a kid, but her brain was still spinning. This wasn't just any kid, it was Alexis and Alexis didn't do things like this. Alexis went to coffee shops with her friends on Friday nights and dated boys like Ashley. Oh, Ashley. But they had broken up months ago, would this really still have something to do with him after all this time? But Alexis had been leading a boy up to her room. Alexis had been doing that. Had Rick even talked to her about protection? Had she and Ashley ever?<p>

Kate remembered what she had been like as a teenager and it wasn't pretty. She wasn't sure if she truly regretted that time of her life or not, but she didn't want Alexis to do the same things that she had done. _Ever._

Did she even have the right to be asking some of these questions? She wasn't Alexis's mother or even her stepmother. She had only been dating her dad for four months. _Technically._ The voice in her head whispered, she had only technically been dating Rick for four months. Really, she thought, they had been together much longer. But still, did that mean she had any authority over Alexis what so ever? Did she really want authority to begin with? She wasn't really even old enough to be Alexis's mother and it wasn't like Alexis needed much authority to begin with. Sometimes it felt like Alexis was the adult and she and Rick were the kids. Especially when she found them making out on the kitchen counter or when they were having a poker showdown and fighting over the last clear gummy bear. If anything she had acted more like a friend in the past few months. Kate sighed again and rubbed her eyes as she pulled off an exit to grab a cup of coffee.

This night deserved an espresso.


	2. Chapter 2

The Seven Sins of Two Women

A/N: To all of the new readers I have gotten for this series. Welcome! It is awesome to see all of your reviews, alerts, etc. To my continued following and repeat reviewers, I always love hearing from you and seeing your alerts. It is seriously awesome to see how much you all like these stories. :)

I just want to maintain that while these stories may be based loosely on some of the episodes, I am definitely taking liberties and giving them my own twists. As always, reviews are love! :)

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><p><span>Chapter 2<span>

Kate leaned against the back wall of the elevator once again. Her head tilted back as the cold metal cooled her scalp through her hair and her arms hung limply at her sides. Elevators seemed to have become the same as couches. She had to admit though, seeing Ryan, Esposito and Castle dressed like Elvis impersonators almost made the past forty-eight hours worth it. Almost. A soft smile flitted across her face as she remembered how Castle had spluttered and stuttered when one of the cabaret singers had come up and started complimenting him on his rhinestones. His eyes had pleaded at her for a rescue, but it was too funny. Instead she hung back, shook and turned red as she worked to control her laughter. Once they had made it to the hotel room she couldn't take it anymore and burst into hysterics, rolling off the bed and onto the floor as she laughed until he finally grumbled and stripped out of the ridiculous costume, stuffing it grudgingly into a dry-cleaning bag.

Kate giggled softly and shook her head as she trudged down the hall. He had given her the puppy dog eyes as he and the boys had looked to her for permission to stay behind for Ryan's quasi bachelor party. She had simply sighed and gave him a peck on the cheek when the boys had disappeared to make plans, straightening the lapels on his jacket as his thumbs rubbed slow circles over the place where her hips met her waist and he promised not to do anything too stupid or to get arrested, this time. _This time. _There was a story there she would get out of him eventually. As for now, she simply had threatened to let their collective asses rot in jail if they got arrested and hauled their perp back off to the city. Now, she was home and another battle was waiting.

"_Kate! I told you to get this mess cleaned up!"_

_Kate moaned into her pillow as her father's voice filtered through the door. The pounding in her head was unbearable and her father's yelling wasn't making much better. Why couldn't he just let her sleep? Didn't he understand the excruciating pain she was in right now? _

"_I'll clean it when I get up," she grumbled back and winced as she heard the door swing open and felt the blankets being pulled off of her. _

"_It's noon. Now get up and clean this up. You're the one who decided it was a great idea to throw a party, you're the one who gets to clean up after it," Jim reasoned. _

_She buried her face further into her pillow and squirmed to shield her legs from the cold._

"_Well if you and mom had just stayed out of town like you were supposed too, I would be able to clean this up tonight like I was planning and you wouldn't have even known there was a party to begin with," she bit back and then winced when she heard her father's short intake of breath. That was definitely the wrong thing to say. _

"_Fine, Katherine. Do whatever you want. You're mother and I are going to Rockefeller to skate and then out shopping and to dinner. We came back into town early so that we could do it as a family, like every year, but I guess you just want to sleep. This just better be cleaned up by the time we get back."_

_Kate waited to haul herself out of bed and into the bathroom until she heard the front door click shut. Staring into the mirror she took in her bloodshot eyes and the black stained lines of mascara pooling under her eyes and running down her cheeks. She sighed and worked to bite down the twinge of regret and tears that threatened to spill out of her eyes. She didn't want to go ice-skating anyway. _

The door to the loft creaked open softly and Kate peered around the corner of the door slowly. Any signs of a party had been erased and she let out a sigh of relief. She noted the couple of vases and statues that were missing, but luckily all of the original artwork had remained untouched. She tossed her bag and shoes to the ground in the bedroom before stripping out of her work clothes and shrugged on a NYPD t-shirt and comfortable, broken in jeans; the type she wore for leisure and not for work. She padded barefoot to the kitchen and debated getting herself something to eat but decided against it. Now she was just stalling. Quickly, she grabbed a can of soda out of the fridge and a bottle of Advil from the cabinet. With a deep breath she placed one foot and then the other on the stairs working her way up to the second floor. She hesitated again as she brought her hand up to knock on Alexis's door. She chased down some of New York's worst criminals on a daily basis. She was the head of her unit and she could make perps squeal for their mommies. She could talk to a teenager. Steeling herself again she knocked gently on Alexis's door.

"Come in." The response came through the door and Kate turned the knob slowly.

Alexis was sitting curled up on her bed, text book on one side of her and laptop on her other side. Kate sighed, smiled gently and shook her head. The apartment was spotless and the girl was doing her homework. Why had she been worried? This was Alexis.

"Here," she said quietly, holding out the soda and pills to the girl. "In case you have a hangover."

Alexis looked surprised as she took the items. "Why are you being so nice to me? I did something really stupid. I could have gotten you and Dad in a lot of trouble. I or someone else could have gotten seriously hurt."

Kate sighed again and sat down on the edge of the bed as Alexis pulled her legs in to sit cross-legged leaning back against the headboard. "That's why, Alexis."

The girl looked even more puzzled and Kate pulled herself around to face Alexis, pulling her own legs up to mirror the teens. "Some of the things I did as a kid made your little gathering last night look a five year-olds tea party. I was a lot like you, you know. I had straight A's, I never acted out and I behaved like the perfect lady whenever I went to events with my parents. That is, until I was sixteen."

Kate fell silent for a moment and dipped her head to smile into her lap before raising her eyes to look at the ceiling. "I was the most awkward teenager. I was tall, lanky, and flat as a pancake. I had braces, acne and stringy hair. Boys barely even looked at me, let alone wanted to date me. Then, when I was sixteen, it was like I woke up one day and I was a different person. My hair started to curl, my face cleared up, I got my braces taken off, and I finally got boobs. It was like it was a miracle. I started to receive so much attention and I went wild. I started modeling- ugh, I still can't believe that one, partying, drinking, smoking. I had a different boyfriend every week- each one a little worse than the one before. I got a tattoo, saved up for a motorcycle. My parents wanted to kill me."

Kate shrugged as Alexis sat wide-eyed and wide mouthed staring at her. "But you know what? Everything I did I was able to justify, to rationalize. If something went wrong it wasn't my fault. My parents came home early one weekend and walked into the middle of a party, but I refused to take any blame for it. I maintained that it was their fault I got in trouble because they came home early. If they hadn't they never would have known. I never thought about the consequences for other people or what could have happened to myself."

Kate smiled at the girl and raised her hand, brushing it over her bright red hair. "You thought about all of that. Now, I'm not saying that it would be a fantastic idea to throw parties and go all wild child, you're too smart for that but at least you understand and are willing to take responsibility for making a mistake."

Alexis sighed and looked down into her lap. "I don't even know why I did it, Kate. I just…"

Kate shifted so she was leaning against the headboard next to Alexis and stretched her legs out in front of her.

"Ashley came back to town over winter break," Alexis continued quietly. "He brought his new girlfriend with him."

She let out an unbelieving laugh. "We only broke up a couple of months ago and he was already seeing someone else and not only seeing her, he brought her home to meet his parents."

Kate watched the girl as Alexis's voice rose in anger and her arms gestured wildly in front of her.

"You were angry," she suggested quietly.

"Angry? I was pissed! I was tired of being the good girl, of being nice. I just wanted to do something, to get back at him. To prove that I wasn't still hung up on him; that I could move on, too."

Kate let out a knowing hum as Alexis visibly deflated beside her. They sat in silence for a few more minutes and they heard the door open and shut down stairs. Kate patted Alexis gently on the leg and pushed herself off of the bed, grabbing the bottle of pills as she went.

"Come on. Get your shoes on," she said as she made her way to the door.

"What? Where are we going?"

"Anger management therapy. Just give me a minute to grab my stuff," Kate replied cryptically as she opened the door and walked into the hall.

Rick was sitting, with his head leaned back on the couch and sunglasses still on when Kate came back down stairs. With a small shake of her head she threw him the bottle of Advil as she passed by on the way to the bedroom. She clipped her gun and badge to her belt before shrugging on her coat and made her way back into the living room.

Castle stared at her blearily from the sofa as Alexis met her by the door. "Where are the two of you going?"

"Girl stuff, Castle," Kate replied and pointed to the bottle in his hand. "Take a couple of those and get yourself something to drink. We'll be back in a few hours."

He mumbled a response as his head fell back once again. Alexis looked up at Kate and they both rolled their eyes in unison before heading out into the hall. _Men. _


	3. Chapter 3

The Seven Sins of Two Women

A/N: I know I sound like a broken record in these things, but thank you so much for your reviews, alerts, favoriting and just for reading and enjoying these stories. You all seriously rock. This is the end of Seven Sins, sad, I know. It was fun to write something a little more lighthearted after 9 Lives and 8 Deaths. But there is the preview of The Six Levels of Hell at the bottom and an A/N to go along with it. Check it out.

On that note, lotsofcoffee, you called it! Now on to Chapter 3 and, as always, reviews are love! :)

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><p>Chapter 3<p>

"Okay, place your feet a little bit wider apart," Kate directed, watching as Alexis shifted her posture. "Good, now hold your arms out like this. You can lock your elbows or leave them a little bit bent. Personally, I let mine to bend a little so I don't get knocked on my ass, but you can decide for yourself."

Kate was aware that she was rambling off the instructions and sucked in a deep breath as Alexis looked back at her.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Kate?"

Kate smiled back at the girl, who was talking a little bit louder than necessary with the ear protectors on her head. No, she wasn't sure this was a good idea at all, but it had worked for her, hadn't it? She had spent many a night here when she had been upset or angry, when things hadn't gone as planned but she didn't want to talk about it. Sometimes talk was overrated. Sometimes you just had to blast the shit out of something.

"Trust me, this will make you feel a whole lot better. Now just take aim at the target and pretend it is Ashley's head."

Alexis shot her another look, doubt dancing in her eyes as she shifted nervously. Kate pulled her lip between her teeth and glanced again between the girl and the target. It wasn't an enlightened thought. It was petty and immature, but sometimes maturity just had to be thrown out the window. She wasn't perfect and as much as Alexis tried to be, the girl wasn't perfect either. That was okay. Kate looked over at the teen, standing, looking doubtful, hurt and a little bit scared. She brushed her hand over the back of her head again, letting the loose orange strands filter through her fingers. They didn't need to be perfect, they didn't need to be enlightened. They just had to real and right now reality sucked.

"How about this, pretend the target is Ashley's new girlfriend."

There was a hint of a predatory glimmer in Alexis's eyes and Kate smiled and stepped back as the girl's nostrils flared slightly and she turned back to the target, took aim and fired. Bullets flew into the concrete walls, sliced open the corners of the paper target and penetrated the black silhouette until the clip was empty.

Alexis released the clip and cleared the gun like Kate had showed her minutes before and let out a sigh as she stepped back and took off the earmuffs. Kate witnessed a careful smile pass over the Alexis's face and she looked at the holy target in front of her. None of the bullets had hit the center of the target, but that wasn't what mattered, what mattered was the look of relief that covered the teen's face. Reality just got a little bit better.

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><p>"You know, I hated you for a long time."<p>

Kate looked up at the statement, the straw to her milkshake held loosely between her fingers from where she had been using it too mix up the artificially pink liquid. Alexis was staring down at her plate of fries, picking mindlessly at one of the strands, her own chocolate milkshake sweating forgotten in the corner of the table.

"I know."

Alexis finally looked up at her as she pushed the plate to the middle of the table, using a napkin to wipe the excess oil from her fingers. "You know, he was willing to die for you? He was willing to leave me and Gram and everything else behind to save you."

"I know."

"I couldn't understand why you were so special. He was supposed to follow you around for a few weeks, get some ideas, get over his writer's block and go back to his safe life of writing and parties. He wasn't supposed to spend years following you around and almost getting himself shot or frozen or blown up or jump in front of bullets. He definitely wasn't supposed to fall in love with you."

Kate barely heard the last words that Alexis whispered out, but they still stung at her heart. She didn't know how to respond to that. What did you say to the child of the man who almost died for you on several occasions because he happened to be in love with you and you had fought tooth and nail to keep him at a distance while always enticing him closer? She hadn't asked Rick to fall in love with her. She certainly hadn't asked him to jump in front of bullets for her. Had she?

"I wasn't supposed to fall in love with him either."

Alexis nodded and let out a sigh in a huff.

"I don't need another mom."

"I know." Kate did know. This girl had a mom, a dad, and a grandmother. She didn't need another parent. "But I have been told I am a pretty good friend."

Alexis nodded in acceptance of the statement and silence fell over the table as the two women momentarily found themselves absorbed in their own little worlds. The words, pictures and movies of thoughts playing through their minds.

"How do you get over it? Having your heart broken."

Kate sighed and watched as slowly melting strawberry milkshake dribbled off of the straw and into the half-full glass.

"You don't. Your heart still aches a little bit whenever you think about that person, but you learn to accept that ache, make it a part of who you are. No matter how much you hurt, you just have to remember that loving is a good thing. It can be stupid, irrational and make you do incredibly dumb things like jump in front of bullets, but it is good and your heart will heal itself." Kate smiled softly at the girl and rubbed her hand over her chest unconsciously. Her heart would heal eventually, too.

"Come on," she continued, slapping her hands on the table. "Let's go home."

They walked down the street side by side, arms hooked together in an attempt to beat the winter wind, both lost in their own thoughts, occasionally making a soft observation or cracking a joke as they watched the people, places and advertisements they were passing by.

"Do I really need to tell Dad about the party?" Alexis asked quietly as they approached their building.

Kate looked down at the girl, thinking about the party her own parents had walked in on and the five that they had remained clueless of. She remembered that look of hurt on her mother's face and the anger glaring in her father's eyes. She remembered her own childish behavior and heartache. She remembered the look of horror in Rick's eyes when she would tease him with stories about her own misspent youth, warning him about Alexis's inevitable fall from the pedestal.

She moved to bump her hip into Alexis's, momentarily jolting them from their steady course. "You know, there are some things that a parent just shouldn't know about."

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><p>When the duo made their way back through the front door of the apartment Castle looked up at them from his place on the couch. He was in the same position he had been in hours before, only now he had a glass of water settled next to him on the table and his shoes and glasses had been sloughed off. A look of bewilderment crossed his face as Alexis came over to give him a kiss on the cheek and he caught sight of the framed target silhouette she held in her hand.<p>

Kate plopped down on the couch beside him, propping her feet up on the table as Alexis excused herself up stairs, carrying the frame with her to mount on her wall.

"You took her to the shooting range?" Rick's voice held a mixture of shock, awe and exasperation.

Kate simply looked over at him and raised a single eyebrow. "Yes."

Rick glanced from her to the far wall, craned his neck around to look back at the now empty stairs and brought his eyes back around to meet hers. "Why?"

Kate shrugged and bit her lip, silently debating how much to tell him. "She needed some girl time."

"So you took her to the _shooting range_? I thought girl time involved ice cream, pedicures and blowing up the credit card bill with a shopping spree, not target practice."

Kate stared at him, attempting to school the smile that threatened to split her face open. He was so cute when he was bewildered. "So stereotypical, Castle. There is a new wave of feminism, you know."

"And it involves guns?"

"I thought you thought my gun was hot."

"It is. The idea of you with a gun is very hot, but Alexis…"

He voice trailed off and Kate took pity on him as the completely lost expression covered his face. "Relax, Castle, she just needed to work out some stuff. I was just trying to help her the only way I knew how. It doesn't have to be a regular thing if you really have a problem with it."

Rick, sighed again, rubbed his forehead and reached for the bottle of painkillers. "No, it's okay. I just don't like that my little girl is growing up. She's almost 18."

He paused, the bottle posed to pour the pills into his awaiting palm. "How did you get into the shooting range anyway? She's only 17."

Kate shrugged, taking the bottle from him, sifting two pills out to hand to him. "Reggie was working the desk."

Rick nodded again and fell silent as he popped the medicine into his mouth and took a swig of his drink.

He looked back towards the stairs after a moment and sighed. "Is she going to be all right? The stuff she had to work out?"

Kate followed his gaze, considering the empty steps for a moment.

_Kate looked up from her book at the gentle tap on her bedroom door. She couldn't help the small smile that passed over her lips as Johanna Beckett's face filled the crack between the door and the wall. It seemed like her mother had a super power sometimes. It was impossible to stay mad at the woman for long. _

"_Can I come in, Katie."_

_Kate nodded slowly and put her book down at her side, making sure to mark the proper page. She watched as Johanna came to sit on the edge of her bed and looked at her. The older woman's eyes studied her like she was trying to decipher a foreign language or an intricate puzzle. Kate looked down into her lap self-consciously. She couldn't understand why her mother was looking at her like that. It wasn't like Kate was really that interesting to begin with. _

_"Everything is going to be okay, Katie._ _I understand. I know you think I don't, but I do. I know it's going to sound cliché but I was your age once, too. I remember what it was like to want to be your own person, to thrive on that attention. I know what it is like to think that you are above it all, that nothing can affect you, that your parents are completely clueless and that you are never wrong."_

_Kate studied her mother's face, looking for any trace of herself in beautiful eyes, the flawless hair and the smooth lines of her cheeks. Her mother couldn't possibly understand. Her mother was perfect, she was smart, she was pretty, she always knew what to say. She couldn't possibly understand what Kate was going through. _

"_You couldn't possibly understand. You are perfect."_

_Johanna simply laughed and leaned over to kiss her daughter on the forehead before standing to leave the room. _

"_One day you will have a daughter of your own, Kate, and then you will understand. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to be the best that you can." _

Kate stared up at the stairs and smiled as she heard her mother's words drift through the room. _I told you so._

"Yeah, Castle," she replied distractedly. "She is going to be just fine."

Her mind drifted back to the present and she turned as she felt Rick's eyes boring into the side of her head. His gaze still had the ability to make her skin heat up and to make her ears turn bright red, just like they had when they had first met. It still had the ability to make her self-conscious.

"What?" She questioned softly.

"It's fate, you know. You were meant to be here, with me, with us. We were supposed to be together."

Kate stared into his eyes, completely filled with love and smiled softly as her words to Alexis from earlier filled her mind.

_I wasn't supposed to fall in love with him, either. _

"Yeah, I know."

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><p>Fin.<p>

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><p>Preview: The Six Levels of Hell<p>

Kate Beckett was not a superstitious person. She didn't believe the number 13 had special powers or that rabbits' feet made everything better. She scoffed at the concept that walking under a ladder was anything other than a stupid idea and she thought black cats were adorable. But standing there, in the coffee shop, she saw the total $6.66 flash on the screen and couldn't help the feeling of dread that swelled through her gut.

A/N: So, I have two ideas for 6: either I can base it on Kill Shot, which I am kind of hesitant to do because the episode was so awesome I don't want to mess with it, or I can go with an original idea that I have. What are your thoughts?


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